BUSINESS PEOPLE

BUSINESS PEOPLE; President for TV Unit At New Line Cinema

By GERALDINE FABRIKANT

Published: November 16, 1991

The New Line Cinema Corporation, the film company that released the "Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Turtle" films, said yesterday that Robert Friedman had joined the company as president of its new television operation.

Mr. Friedman has been president of the Playboy Entertainment Group, the television and video arm of Playboy Enterprises Inc.

New Line, based in New York, specializes in low-budget films. In addition to the Ninja Turtle films, it has released popular series of "House Party" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies.

Now New Line is trying to start a television business, and Mr. Friedman's position is new. New Line already had an equity stake in RHI Investments, a company run by Robert Halmi, the television producer whose credits include "The Josephine Baker Story," among others.

New Line owns 55 percent of RHI. Mr. Friedman, who is 35 years old, said he would oversee that investment and also attempt to develop more television programming. "What we would look to do is certain kinds of projects such as movies of the week," he said. "I would not rule out network series, but we would not concentrate on them."

He added that he would describe New Line's approach as "smart TV" and emphasized that he would look for programming with broad international appeal. He mentioned that New Line might seek to produce television series based on some of its well-known movies, like "House Party."

As president of the Playboy Entertainment Group, Mr. Friedman ran Playboy's television and home video ventures, including cable television and pay-per-view services, among other responsibilities.

He was previously a senior vice president of marketing promotion and licensing for the MTV and VH-1 video channels. In the early 1980's, he joined the Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company, working on pay-television services like the Movie Channel and Nickelodeon.

Mr. Friedman was one of the first men admitted to Vassar College, where he received a bachelor's degree in psychology. He later earned a master's of business administration from the Columbia University graduate school.

Mr. Friedman and his wife, Alisa, who is a physician, live in New York City. They have two daughters.